Mer Barr
The writing continues to be good however this one tangents away from the main characters completely and there were some spots where they didn't give enough information to answer some big things, soon enough. As in I had no idea what the young girl was referring to; was it on the ground, in the air, why were the parents so concerned. Chapters later enough information has now been provided and ‘looking back' it makes better sense.
I found the date references both amusing and a bit sad that we've not progresses as far as Asimov & Silverberg imagined. I did love that they see the Earth circling back to a lower population and more park-like.
The story moves along nicely although some of the sections on what Andrew Martin was thinking was more than I cared to hang in there with. I did find alot of the human and robot interactions very prophetic, to alot of the issues in the news lately around racism and bias.
I had hoped this was the story of Chetter Hummin, of Foundation series, and R Daneel Olivaw, of the Robot series, but the last chapter in this book says Andrew dies. Conspiracy theory might have you saying the death was a ruse but the prior chapters clearly spell out the logic for why he chooses to die. At least wikipedia has answered the long-time, burning, question I had; Is Chetter Hummin and R Dannel Olivaw the same unique robot?
The rhythm is smooth, the chapters are grouped by subject matter and were very clear and consistent with the topics discussed.
I only made it 41% of the way thru because the news was so disheartening and, as of her writing, not much in the way of improvement; solutions identified or implementated.
It's a subject that I'll continue to follow.
Anne McCaffrey doesn't disappoint. She has some science, some non-science, people you just don't like and others you do, and not a cliff hanger. I much prefer the books in this series that she wrote on her own; they seem to have a better flow to the sentences than some of her collaborations with others.
Not easy to pick up the plot and run with it because there's an assumption you know the prior 1 or 2 books. There's a bit of introduction to each of the character and their relation to each other but not enough to make each memorable for recall when needed.
Also, there's an awful lot of talking to the reader and not alot of plot, unless it picks up after I got frustrated and quit.
The author picked a great set of people to write about. The father isn't all that impressed with Germans and the daughter is in bed with a variety of ranking Nazi's, Russian pre-KGB... Between the two you get a great mix of perspectives. And the time period written about was educational.
I knew the war ended around 1945 but didn't know Hitler was put in office in 1933, and was put there by people believing they could control him. That Goebels was incredibly over weight.
Not one of my favorites in the series, plot wise. The book starts out with a mystery, veers away from it to focus on 1 man's inability to cope with rejection and failure, and only in the climax of the storyline does it come back to the mystery. And to make things worse, doesn't even explain the mystery. I hate when that happens. The logical side of me understands why it's not explained but my passionate side does have a right to object.
I was definitely happy to see Bobby, and Clarissa settling in to the family. And to continue to experience Avasarela's blunt talking.
I really appreciate that each chapter in each of the books, is titled with the person's point of view. It gives me time to remember where the storyline left off for this person and move along smoothly with the audio. I just read one hardback book where there wasn't even a visual announcement of the pov and/or scene change. Not even white space. The author was bouncing back and forth between the different storylines, sometimes with each paragraph, and I felt like I was often backtracking to figure out where I'd gotten lost and reread from the scene change to get back on track.
Alot of jumping around in time kept me confused alot of the time, especially because I don't follow hockey and could have picked up on some of the references to keep my in sync. Otherwise, I liked a chapter on each of the players, and thankfully, a chapter on why this was such a big deal. Otherwise I'd have missed the reason for the book.
Well rounded in that the emphasis is on the dogs' recovery but does give some insight to what they dealt with without too much gruesomeness, and talks about the people associated with the dog fighting ring, the folks involved in the investigation and justice systems, and the various folks helping the animals transition to lives as normal as each can get.
The narrator did a great job. He reads at a good pace not too slow or fast and I didn't hear any mistakes in the recording itself.
I've been tossing books aside partially read all year so I'm amazed. This book kept my interest the entire time. No skipping over pages, no frustration at getting lost, but I will say there were sections around the science and the geography where my eyes glazed over for a bit.The story moves back and forth between the scientists and their lobsters, and the lives of the lobstermen and women. I really enjoyed how each chapter title related to the stories for each.The book ends in 2000; I'd be curious if there's an update on the science and/or the folks on Little Cranberry Island since.If you enjoyed this you'll probably enjoy [b:The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell 3342 The Big Oyster History on the Half Shell Mark Kurlansky https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388197340l/3342.SY75.jpg 1167849]. Another subject I thought I'd never completely read but found fascinating and full of info I didn't know.
Now this is citizen science! Has me looking for nature in my own backyard, so to speak. Each chapter or set of chapters are distinct stories, the only drawback is the timelines revert so some chapters speak of a member no longer alive and a couple later they're alive. Some chapters mention troubles, later there may be a bit of clarify but sometimes none at all.
I don't often put a book in my personal library but this one just might be a new member down the road.